Storm brings more than an inch of rain to parts of Sonoma County

The first serious storm in weeks swept through the North Bay early Wednesday, knocking out power in more than two dozen places and bringing much-needed rain.

Snow also was falling up in the Sierra Nevada, with about five inches overnight reported at Tahoe-area ski resorts and more piling up Wednesday.

Rainfall at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport early Wednesday totaled 1.34 inches.

In other areas National Weather Service volunteer rain watchers reported 1.29 inches in Cloverdale and 1.6 inches in Monte Rio. In Petaluma .31 inches fell and a Santa Rosa resident recorded .39 inches of rain.

There has been no sustained rainfall since the start of the year other than spits and dribbles, said meteorologist Diana Henderson with the National Weather Service.

Showers are expected in the North Bay through Thursday night.

"It'll be all over by Friday," Henderson said.

There were 27 storm-related outages in Sonoma County during the night, involving 1701 customers.

A fir tree branch fell into a wire on Austin Creek Road at about 9:40 p.m. Tuesday. Everyone caught in the Monte Rio outage was restored by about 2:15 a.m., he said.

The CHP and emergency fire dispatchers early Wednesday reported no serious weather-related problems. A few trees reportedly fell in rural areas.

The storm pushed into the region Tuesday night with gusting winds and heavy downpours.

At the airport 40 mph winds were recorded.

By dawn the bulk of the storm had moved south, leaving behind cloudy skies and the promise of cool temperatures and showers.

Morning lows should drop back into the 30s Thursday and Friday, coinciding with a drop in afternoon high temperatures down into the 50s Wednesday and Thursday.

By the weekend the afternoons should warm into the upper 60s with a chance of 70 degrees on Monday.

The next possible chance of rain is Tuesday, she said.

Northeast of Santa Rosa a car smashed into a utility pole at about 7 a.m. Wednesday on rural Calistoga Road, knocking out power to 2023 customers. Most were back on by about 8:30 a.m. The rest would be restored later Wednesday, he said.